Well, step one and two of the long journey to San Francisco are officially complete - so let me give y'all a run down.
After getting up at around 5 this morning, the whole family hopped in the car (it's been a while since we've had all 5 of us in 1 car - talk about squish!), we made our way down to Tullamarine airport. Step one of my itinerary today was a short QANTAS hop from Melbourne to Sydney. Coincidentally, Mum was travelling to Canberra this morning at the same time, so we all went through security and everyone saw me off as I hopped on the plane.
Melbourne -> Sydney was entirely uneventful, and after just over an hour onboard, I hopped off and transferred to my China Air flight for Taipei.
Now, China Air is hardly QANTAS as far as service + in flight entertainment goes (smaller, less frequent and less appetising meals and snacks, but well within the range of what you expect from airplane food), but it was a novelty to travel on a different type of plane than the ordinary Boeing 747 (we were in an Airbus A330). Additionally, while their movie and television offerings aren't as strong (only about a dozen in total - I watched Ironman and Son of Rambow), they have some cool features. first and foremost, every seat has access to a live feed from cameras on the front and below the aircraft, so you can look out ahead or underneath the plane at any time. They also have a dynamic satellite plane tracking software, where you can not just see information and a map of the route, but also zoom in and out on your route or any other part of the world - it's kinda like some sort of primitive version of Google Earth. Finally, and this is how I spent much of my Sydney to Taipei flight, they also have some rather cool games onboard - primarily Luxor, the ball-shooting puzzle/reflex game. And while it runs at about two frames per second, it's still a welcome distraction. Even if I can't get more than about 6 levels in :(
Anyway, I've arrived safely now at Taipei International Airport, and am just awaiting the arrival of the plane to take me on the 12 hour trip to Los Angeles. That's not due for about two hours, but between the free wireless internet (I love free wireless) and a whole bunch of Duty Free shops to window-browse, I think I can kill the time.
Talk to y'all later!
Jono
PS. No photos yet, btw - thy don't like cameras very much in airports, so I'm not gonna push my luck.
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2 comments:
Free wireless at Taipei and you didn't email your mother? Shame on you boy. I just looked up your blog by chance and found an entry. Plane tracker sounds cool, but I gained more joy from the fact that you can only get up to level six on Luxor - ha!
Anyway lovely to have some idea of how things are going - look forward to hearing from you soon.
Mum
You've kept your boredom at bay, Jono, but I expect you'll be seeing little frogs and coloured balls in your dreams for a week.
Glad to hear you're doing fine.
Much love,
Pip.
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